Women’s basketball looks to rebound
The 2014-2015 season hasn’t been an easy one for the Utah State women’s basketball team.
After going 5-3 through the second half of conference play last year, the team had high expectations for this season.
“We felt really good at the end of the season, and we carried that through the summer,” said coach Jerry Finkbeiner before the season began. “Our preseason ranking was eighth, but my hope is that we’ll blow that out of the water.”
Those expectations took a turn for the worse when two of the top players left earlier in the season.
On Dec. 5 after seven games, the Utah State Athletic Department announced that Stephanie Bairstow and Makenlee Williams were leaving the team, both citing personal reasons.
Williams was leading the team in scoring at 14 points per game. Bairstow had started in four games and appeared in each of the seven games before she left. To that point in the season, Utah State was 1-6 with the lone win coming against Utah Valley in Logan.
During that span Utah State was tested by playing against two top-20 ranked teams and playing six of the first seven games on the road.
“We’ve been challenged by the Mountain West to increase our strength of schedule rating as well as our RPI,” Finkbeiner said. “This has to be the strongest preseason schedule Utah State has had, and I think it’s the strongest in the Mountain West.”
The Aggies are now 4-13 on the year and 1-4 in the Mountain West after picking up their first conference win against Air Force on Saturday. The four USU conference losses came by a combined total of 21 points.
With 13 conference games still to be played and a roster that is still deep despite losing two players, Utah State can turn its season around.
“A lot of the girls are able to play several positions. The more positions our girls can play, the more value our system has,” Finkbeiner said. “I like our depth at this point. I like the newness we have with the new players that have come into the program. I like our returning players and the effort they put into the off-season to get ready for the 2014-15 edition of the Aggies.”
The Utah State women will be back in action Wednesday to take on Nevada in Logan.
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor